The present invention relates to a fresh water generator which purifies seawater or the like in order to obtain pure water suitable for drinking or the like.
Such a fresh water generator is generally equipped with a primary pump and a secondary pump. The primary pump, having a large lift and a relatively low pressure, is provided for sucking water into the generator from a water source such as seawater. The secondary pump, having a comparatively high pressure, is provided for further pressing water fed from the primary pump so as to send it to a filtering device for water purification. When the filtering device is cleaned and disinfected, a valve device is actuated to cut off water flowing from the primary pump to the secondary pump. While at the same time, chemicals, such as formalin, are pressed and fed from a chemical tank to the filtering device through the secondary pump in order to clean the filtering device. The primary pump as well as the secondary pump have heretofore been connected to two prime movers, respectively, which are provided as power sources, and are each separately driven. For the above reasons, the use of the fresh water generator is limited to where electric power is available. There are also disadvantages, such that the fresh water generator is heavyweight, and has limited versatility.